Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The Bio Circuit vest is a interesting concept design created by two students at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Dana Ramler and Holly Schmidt. Bio Circuit provides a sound (e)scape in sync with the biological state of the wearer. As parameter of the biological state serves the heart rate which is slower and even when relaxed and calm and goes up with the stress feeling, excitement and anxiety. These different emotional cycles we pass through every day can be enhanced or influenced by sound, be it music of different types or sounds from our environment like birds, the flow of water which is associated with calm or the city sound scape of traffic, people walking and talking. Depending on ones stimulus preferences these emotional playlists will be automatically selected according the heart rate from an MP3 player and reproduced via a speaker integrated into the collar of the Bio Circuit vest. The collar design ensures a certain degree of privacy, shielding part of the surroundings but does not block out the space around.

Based on the feedback we receive on our personal experience, illuminated textiles, be it for clothing or interior design, never fails to trigger instant, highly emotionally charged reactions from everyone around when seeing textile objects suddenly light up, changing their color. We are not talking about blinking, cheaply made decals, we're referring to ascetically sophisticated designs using soft light effects to emphasize the softness of fabric. Technological developments into light emitting textiles are mostly at their early proof-of-concept stage and there is no reliable, commercially available product on the market for designer to use. Nevertheless, many companies spend considerable resources to crack the technical difficulties and each new development is a potential step forward to unleash the powerful magic of textile illumination. One such effort, more suitable for interior design than clothing design is coming from Japan’s Tsuya Textile Co., in cooperation with the Fukui Engineering Center. Their collaboration project ‘Delight Cloth‘ is a light emitting textile made from thin optical fibers measuring just 0.25 to 0.5 mm in diameter. These optical fibers are woven to fabric sheets which can be used to cover ceilings, walls or furniture to provide a soft flowing and soft illumination for interior decoration. We keep on mentioning interior because the ‘Delight Cloth’ will need a 100W to 150W light source connected to the fiber-optic ends of the woven cloth to send light, which could have any color, over the whole length of the cloth. Not really a portable, wearable solution but for interior decoration an almost perfect technology to spread some soft and surprising magic around a room. If you are planning to add some sparkle to your next fashion collection maybe Luminex could be your choice as they are offering a very similar fiber optic woven textile which seems is more suitable for a portable, wearable solution.

File this under: amazing underwater structures. This suite at the Hilton Maldives Resort & Spa Rangali Island was once a restaurant, but now has been converted "to a private bedroom suite for two, complete with private champagne dinner and breakfast in bed."

Ithaa sits five meters below the surface of the Indian Ocean, encased in plexiglass and reached by descending a spiral staircase. It has been temporally turned to a suite to celebrate its 5-year anniversary.

It's official, Verizon is no longer a Google Nexus One partner. Their listing on the phone page now reads: "For Verizon's network, you can buy the Droid Incredible by HTC, a powerful Android phone and similarly feature-packed cousin of the Nexus One."

Vodafone simultaneously announced it will soon start offering Nexus One phones through retail stores and on its website, giving the devices away for free to U.K. customers who sign up for the carrier's wireless plans.

The Nokia N8 has officially been announced. Available in a variety of colors, this handset features a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen, 12.0-megapixel camera, 16GB of built-in memory, HDMI-out, microSD expansion, and Ovi Maps.

...availability pegged for "select markets" in Q3 for E370 ($494) without any subsidies involved. Not like it'll have any other competition up in its grille by that point or anything...

Kinda addicted to concept designs, especially those with flaring graphics and eyes catching color tones. The new musical gadget concept designed by Min-guk Ji, Hong-joo Kim and In-oh Yoo for Metatrend Institute is one good example of such concept.

Wonder how will the flexible OLED panels react when you play the Moon Light Sonata? The “Transparent OLED Headphones”, as we are trying to connote a name for the concept. It consists of flexible OLED panels and two ear-cups that will allow user to custom design a lighting show or patterns across the cranium.

You could set the color groove according to current track of music or scroll any message texts or simply remain whatever color you’re feeling like that day. The left side button controls your sound functions while the right side button controls the light show. We think these headphones are so revolutionary they just may need a new segment name.

How about a projection of 70-inches at about 1.8 metres wide distance using a portable Mini WiFi LED Projector that comes with wireless remote control? Will that fit your mobility needs? The Portable Mini WiFi LED Projector comes with 10 lumen brightness offering 640×480 resolution. The rechargeable battery is capable of providing an approximate 2 hours of continuous usage.You might a question, what could a mini projector with dimension of 137×77x23mm (LxWxD) do for you? This Linux base OS projector comes with few built-in applications to let you to browse photos, listen to the music, playback videos, tune to internet ratio, check your local weather or let you check email.Comes with a USB port and SD card slot for storage media, the portable Mini WiFi LED Projector also has an AV RCA cable for analogue inputs and b/g wifi connectivity for downloading and streaming your media and a built-in speaker. Recognized file formats for media playback including .mpeg1/2/4, .avi, .xvid, mp3, wma and aac.Price: USD288.43

Foldable Mini USB Keyboard [ code: USMINKBK ] from Thanko is offering 19mm key pitch, USB1.1/2.0 interface and compatible to most OS platform including Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Mac OS X.Having a dimension of 91×129x20mm, the foldable mini usb keyboard / USMINKBK from Thanko is easy to dispatch and for carrying around. Neat gadget for highly mobile people or those with bunch of reports on their business trip.Price: USD53/.

Luxury watches’ industry seems pretty sluggish for the last decade, and except the predictable whooping sky high price, the design for the new Concord C1 EternalGravity is somehow ‘not astonishingly’ shinny.Designed with tourbillon with 38 jewels, this Concord C1 EternalGravitiy timepiece is surrounded by a total of 403 gems weighing 25.31 carats in total. The tourbillon capable of 21,600 vph and 84 hours power reserve in a 18kt white gold case (48.5mm x 18.5mm), set with 227 baguette-cut diamonds, weighing 20.17 carats and another 18kt white gold crown set with 26 baguette-cut diamonds, weighing 1.30 carats.Concord C1 EternalGravity water resistant capability is down to 30 meters deep in the water.

Growing fresh herbs indoor or outdoor would become an enjoyable task whenever you have the hobby, good mood and neat supporting equipments. Quirky seems trying to conceptualize what is meant to be neat equipments for growers. The recently released Stem Garden concept with flexible cable twist is one of the concepts undergoing pre-order stage.Inspired by Champagne flutes, this was a concept designed by Quirky’s global community in approximately 24 hours. The cups are removable and easy for maintenance. The stems also function as the water overflow dripping pipes.

You could twist and bend the stems according to your aesthetics sense or art of gardening when putting the stem garden indoor or outdoor. This product will also come with a user friendly herb starter kit, a variety of seeds and a set of simple instructions.

People have been hiding things under their bed for ages. We just can’t really say it’s ever occurred to us to stash a big flat screen TV under my bed. Apparently one gadet creator has a slight thing for stashing things under the covers, because they decided to create a mechanism that will hide your TV and then bring it out again with just the touch of a little button. You’d have to make sure that you have a whole lot of clearance space for your TV to move from underneath to up where you can see it. When it shows up on your doorstep it comes pre-assembled and doesn’t even require for you to modify your bed frame at all. It can handle a screen that weighs up to 120lbs, which means you can have a pretty serious TV. Sadly though it can cost you up to $22,999.

Speakers tend to have interference when placed with other forms of electronics, especially those that are not magnetically shielded. Well, Hammacher has a solution for those who want to enjoy their music anywhere and yet are averse towards headphones – we’re talking about the Interference Avoiding Wireless Speaker. This wireless speaker is capable of rolling out great audio by operating over an FM frequency which will avoid interference from cordless phones and microwaves. It comprises of a transmitter that can connect to a compatible audio playback device as long as it uses a 3.5mm jack, and has a working broadcast range of up to 100 feet. Features include a 12-watt subwoofer that is augmented by an acoustic bass chamber, producing powerful low range sounds while the 3-watt tweeter provide accurate high frequencies. It will be a strain on your finances in the long run if you don’t go for rechargeable batteries though since the speaker requires eight C batteries and transmitter four AA batteries. Expect to fork out $99.95 for the Interference Avoiding Wireless Speaker.

If only we could use the power of love to charge all of our gadets. Then we could make sure that all of our gadgets were powered sickening sweetly. Sadly this is only going to work with your very small gadgets like your cellphone and various brands of MP3 players. The power of love just isn’t nearly strong enough to handle the big time gadgets. Sometimes it still amazes me how many heart-shaped gadgets come out of Japan, but if you like that sort of thing then that’s not necessarily a bad thing. These hearts come in 3 different colors, bright red, light pink and a darker pink. Any gadgets of yours that are able to charge through a USB port will work with this little heart. To pick one up it’ll cost you ¥2,950.00 or about $31 through Geek Stuff 4U.

Come time to call for that ransom, you can’t have the listener recognizing your voice. Now there are all sorts of voice changers for your home phone, but you need something for when you’re on the road. Thankfully, Amazon is to the rescue as always. We haven’t the faintest idea what the practical application would be for a Cellphone Voice Changer, but there could be a perfectly legitimate reason for it. Just in case though, if anyone asks we'd mumble something about it being just some silly cellphone accessory. Most people might frown on you carrying one around. Since it is a $21 set, it might be more similar to something you’d find at the joke shop as opposed to the secret spy shop. Which might make it better suited for prank calling your friends. You can even keep them on their toes since it has 4 voice change options. It also has an included battery that offers 30 hours of use.

The HDV-T900 camcorder was developed to solve the problem linked with low battery life. Besides being powered by 4xAAA batteries, which can be replaced almost anytime, anywhere, the device also includes a set of flip out solar cells.By harnessing solar energy, the solar cell can recharge the 4 batteries in the HDV-T900 camcorder, which allows you to use this eco-friendly device almost non-stop wherever you are. This is probably the best and most impressive feature of the device. The camcorder includes a 5.0MP CMOS sensor that shoots videos at a resolution of 1280×720P at 30fps. It also captures still images that can be up to 12MP in size. The built in memory is enough to store 32MB of data, which means that you will most likely need to expand it with an SD card - the HDV-T900 camcorder supports SD cards with a capacity of up to 32GB.The user can easily link the camcorder to an HDTV by using an HDMI connection. In order to download pictures and videos to a computer, you can use USB.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Daniel is still sceptical about patterned pants as a 2010 fashion trend; and we do agree that the wrong ones can be disastrous. But it's for that very reason that when you get it right, it really stands out and creates a feeling of fashion-forwardness that the mainstream aren't yet on top of. Model Hanne Gaby Odiele is a great example. Wearing Dries Van Noten's ethnic prints, she's clashing yet perfectly put together.

Skipping over some of the more combat-inspired looks (cargo pants, dog tags and wide mesh tops in this shoot are a little too close to the nineties for comfort), it's the more refined military looks that stand out. Gisele Bundchen works little khaki green boy shorts with leggy ease.

What a difference a change of hairstyle can make. Originally taking inspiration, perhaps, from the 1940s waved hair revival (one of the 2010 hair trends), a few inches shorter and sleekly styled the transforms from something sultry to a hairstyle with a Northern European simplicity.

Jolet's Winter 2010 collection makes you want to saddle up and trot around the country-side, then hang up your boots by the fire and sit down to a hot cup of tea. Unmistakably jodhpur inspired - even when no jodhpurs are present - the pieces manage to avoid the strictness and formality of eventing gear and stick to a refined yet relaxed weekend-in-the-country feel.

Vin Burnham is an international, award-winning costume and creature designer whose body of work is extensive and downright impressive —including costumes designs for feature films, television, opera, ballet and exhibitions. She is the talent behind the Batsuit, the Penguin and Catwoman costumes for Batman Returns. She has created creatures for Jim Henson’s Creature Shop in London. She even wrote her own fabulous DIY book "Best Ever Kids Costumes" and has recently launched ‘The Little Costume Shop’, a collection of intricately detailed costume miniatures.Catwoman/Michelle Pfeiffer – Batman Returns, Warner Bros

With a plethora of impressive projects under her belt, it is no surprise that Vin Burnham is the costumier behind Lady Gaga's "Living Dress." So what goes on behind the scenes in creating such a magical and technical costume for the stage? We asked Vin Burnham just that and she offered us some insight on what it entails to collaborate with the Haus of Gaga.

In your body of work, you have created some magical and fantastical costumes for theater, film and television. How was designing the "Living Dress" for Lady Gaga different from your previous experiences?

"Designing this dress was quite a different process to costume design for film, TV and theatre, even for a fantasy costume like this, as it was not for a scripted character. Normally I work with the actress on her character so that the costume helps describe that character and makes her feel right as that character."

Yesterday we went on a mini rant about how rapid prototyping is certainly going to effect the way our garments are produced. Today we want to continue that conversation by also adding (perhaps its obvious) that along with the shifts in the modes of production, rapid prototyping technologies are also a vehicle for designers to explore a new aesthetic. The work of Lilly Heine is a beautiful example of fashion that would have been painstaking to create without the assistance of a laser cutter. For her Autumn/Winer 2010 collection, Ms. Heine created extraordinary pieces from layers of laser cut fabric. With the fleshy tones and stratified layers, the models look like they've been carved out of stone.

Get in touch is a musical interface made by Matthijs Munnik, Ben Terwel and Charlotte ‘t Hart from the ArtScience department at the Royal Academy of Art and the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, The Netherlands. The installation consists of a big white cylinder shape, with human backs coming out of openings in the fabric. Visitors are invited to touch the backs to create sounds. When you touch two or more backs, a connection is made and you can start playing. To change the sound you apply more pressure. You can touch different combinations of backs to create new sounds. Get in touch questions the way an interface influences behaviour. The user’s experience oscillates between seeing the bodies in the installation as material objects and being aware of an anonymous kind of intimacy. We really enjoy the way the installation is a wearable for the performers who by hiding their identity can expose themselves to their audience. Not only is the piece an interface for music, but also for unsexual physical contact. Get in touch was made in the context of the Tactile Research Lab, taught by wearables artist Cocky Eek, where students worked with lightweight and inflatable structures, looking for ways to merge the digital and physical worlds in urban surroundings and nature.

We love this scarf. Ever-so chic and very Parisian. This scarf is a toss and go or you can wear this scarf twisted for a more sophisticated look. Looks great paired with a tee or sweater. Wear wrapped at the neck or long and loose. The ribbed detailing and generous width and length make this scarf a must have! 80% viscose, 20% linen.

We love purple and this is the perfect dress for this gorgeous color! This sleek jersey dress made of 100% viscose features a draped bodice and a corseted waist with ruching at sides and shoulders and wrap detail at skirt. Asymmetrical hem and hidden side zip. Short sleeves. Made in Italy. This dress is eye catching, edgy, ever-so sexy and great for your next party. Derek Lam's designs always have the best styling with so much attention to detail. We would buy this dress just for the color as we are always in black or earth tones. Derek Lam Draped Dress is a must-have and so easy to accessorize!